Some of you know I am attempting to build the adire kit281

I decided to start a new thread and stop threadjacking.

Right now I have not built the cabinets yet. That is the easy part Finishing is a bitch though.

My first attempt from last weekend was 5 coats of auto primer sanded to 400 between coats and 2 coats of auto black gloss sanded with 600. I then used polishing compound and mother's polish/wax. It came out ok. I can see myself, but not what I would call mirror. The overspray from the cans is a pain in the ***.
I will post pics of that finish later this week.

Today I purchased an orbital sander, a paint brush, foam brush, water-based black latex enamel, and clear water-base polyurethane gloss.

I sanded my test board with 220 before starting this time, and used alcohol on a rag to clean off the saw dust. The black gloss went on too thick imo. There are brush streaks.

 

how are you building the box? just a normal square box? recessed tweeter? internal bracing?

what does the adire kit 281 consist of??

 

This is adire's page for the kit 281 http://www.adireaudio.com/diy_...1.htm

This is a review http://www.adireaudio.com/diy_...1.htm

The kit consists of a pair of adire's av8 woofers/midbass and a single audax tweeter per speaker. The crossovers are also included in the kit. The kit make respectible bass to the mid 30's. So I can run it without sub in my bedroom.

I have not decided rather to flush mount the drivers or not. I personally don't think it makes them look any better and it is more to mess up.

I will use internal bracing that adire specifies in their instructions http://www.adireaudio.com/Files/KIT281Plans.PDF

I plan on building it to adires specs except I plan on placing a 1"x7" slot port at the bottom. I am planning on using 1/4" round over on the edges but I am undecided about that also.

 

Here are a couple of pics from my webcam. I was lazy and did not want to resize , so crappy webcam pics it is.

This is my test from last weekend with 5 coats of primer, and 2 coats of automotive gloss black. Finished with 600, turtle wax polish and mother's polish/wax.


This weekend's attempt is going well. So far I have 3 coats black, 2 thin and one thick. The board was orbital sanded with 220 before starting. I have wet sanded each coat except the last with 600. I had problems with lots of brush marks in the first two coats, and I did not want to thin so I tried a thick coat. I should have done that to begin with. There should be little sanding this time. I think I will do one more thick coat and then do the 3 coats of poly.


The results of 2 hours in the paint section at lowe's last night

 

On that second pic the coat is already dry to the touch. It was done 2 hours ago. I wanted to clarify since it looks a little wet still.

 

if it calls to flush the mids and tweets, flush them - otherwise you will get some strange frequency response peaks...

 

What type of gun are you using to spray with? Thick is good.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rcurley55 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if it calls to flush the mids and tweets, flush them - otherwise you will get some strange frequency response peaks...</TD></TR></TABLE>

The instructions don't call for flush. I have read some thing's on the diy site concerning that. Most seem to do it for looks though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxxtreme &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What type of gun are you using to spray with? Thick is good.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Brush with the help of sandpaper.


The auto finish was duplicolor spray can stuff.


Modified by vteg at 7:56 PM 12/28/2003

 

for auto finish you can get yourself a pretty decent HVLP gun from http://www.harborfreight.com/c...43430 for $40. I have used $1500 guns and this one shoots pretty damn nice.

For the other stuff you are shooting I would use one of those wagner power sprayers. Or a standard paint gun.

 

I will try my luck with the brush My parents have an electric spray gun, but that is too messy. Even spray paint cans are messy imo.

 

if it doesn't call for flush, then don't.

Duplicolor is the best rattle can paint around. Just spray it up and then you can wet sand out any peel, then use some cut polish to shine it up....it's good stuff.